London Orbital (audio story)
London Orbital was the first story in the audio anthology Sullivan and Cross - AWOL, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan and Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross.
Publisher's summary
Long ago, a massacre in a suburban house led to the young Harry Sullivan joining UNIT. But the murders were never solved. Years later, Harry and Naomi Cross investigate an oddity in the London Underground and uncover a whole different side to the capital.
Creatures of myth are running amok across the city in a conflict going back decades. And somewhere in the shadows lurks a new incarnation of their old friend...the Doctor. And he's here to stop a war.
Plot
Part one
Having felt useless at sea during the recent plague, Harry has an interview with Dr May for a job at a hospital and learns that the plague was cured by a man from UNIT. He meets a bloodsoaked couple with strange ears who ask for help and disappear, after which a man with a sword, Keryth, comes looking for them and departs when the alarm rings. Harry heads to the address that the couple mentioned, 17 Foxworth Drive.
In the 2010s, Harry and Naomi are working for UNIT after the Fourth Doctor returned them to Earth more than thirty years after their own time. Harry decides to investigate the matter of elf-like creatures encountered by Harper and Byrne behind a vanishing wall in Clerkenwell tube station, believing them to be connected to the massacre at 17 Foxworth Drive. Back in the day, Harry had reported the bodies he had found there to the authorities, but the house had completely vanished by the time they arrived and the house numbers reshuffled. He looked into it and came into contact with the Brigadier, who hired him as UNIT's medical officer.
Harry and Naomi go to Clerkenwell and speak with Harper and Byrne, who describe the sense of dread they felt as they approached the wall and show them the patterned tiles they found on the other side. They see Keryth chasing the foreman over a monitor and Naomi calls the police whilst Harry goes to help, but the foreman is shot in the arm with an arrow. Keryth recognises Harry and prepares to throw him in the path of a train before the Seventh Doctor uses the Sigil of Tormis to bind him and force him to release Harry. Keryth gets on the moving train as it passes.
The Doctor realises who he has just saved and is surprised to see how young Harry and Naomi look. Having read the UNIT files, the two of them know who he is and tell him what has happened.
Part two
The Doctor, Harry and Naomi step through the wall, which the Doctor explains is an Álfar enchantment vulnerable to iron and wood which can be removed if the pattern drawn on the tiles is erased. The Álfar live in a realm connected to Earth and have their own science which is indistinguishable from magic, a concept that Naomi struggles with. She and Harry tell the Doctor about how he left them in the wrong century and he promises to make returning them his priority once this situation is dealt with.
The trio find an abandoned Dökkálfar settlement and are followed by the police. The Doctor escapes on a boat on the canal whilst Harry and Naomi are arrested for wasting police time, the security footage having shown Harry fighting with thin air on the platform. They are taken by Sarya to an impossible garden in a skyscraper and brought before Agrandir, the Elf-King of London, who tells them that his people are the Ljósálfar and that he lost his son, Balmaris, to the Dökkálfar. Harry recognises a portrait of Balmaris as the man he saw at the hospital in the 20th century.
Knowing that the Doctor wants to prevent a war, Naomi advises Agrandir not to fight the Dökkálfar, but he commands her and Harry not to interfere. As Sarya prepares to drive the two of them to UNIT HQ, she is killed by Keryth, invisible to the other humans, and Harry and Naomi are surrounded by Dökkálfar.
Part three
Led by Lathrael, Dökkálfar fire at Keryth and his band and the Doctor gets Harry and Naomi to safety in the Álfar Realm via the sewers. They meet Elidir, Queen of the Dökkálfar, and Balmaris, whom Harry realises are the couple that he met at the hospital, and the Doctor explains to Harry and Naomi that the Dökkálfar have been demonised by the Ljósálfar. Elidir claims that her marriage to Balmaris led Agrandir to send a death squad led by Keryth to Foxworth Drive, after which they hid at Clerkenwell. Prompted by the Doctor, Harry and Naomi realise that Keryth was solely responsible for the massacre and has been playing both sides against each other.
Keryth summons the Council and informs them of the apparent alliance between the Dökkálfar and UNIT, stating that they must obliterate them, but Agrandir is less certain given the amount of Ljósálfar who could die. Whilst the Council deliberate, Keryth uses magic to spy on Elidir and Naomi.
The Doctor and Harry go with Balmaris and Lathrael to reveal the truth to Agrandir. They use a secret entrance via the maintenance lift and enter the palace where Agrandir initially believes that Balmaris is a trick, but soon accepts the truth and orders Keryth's arrest. However, Keryth kills Agrandir and wounds Balmaris, whom the Doctor and Harry get to safety. Keryth duels Lathrael and mortally wounds him, telling him that he will be the cause of the genocide of his own people.
Part four
After getting Balmaris to the hospital, Harry takes charge of his operation whilst the Doctor goes to confront Keryth. The sigil does not work, however, and Keryth chokes the Doctor before throwing him out of the window and threatening the receptionist into telling him where Balmaris is. The Doctor sets off the fire alarm and Harry and Balmaris are prevented from leaving by Keryth. Harry pretends to abandon Balmaris, but hits Keryth with a lorry and inadvertently buries him in rubble.
With the Council having given their authorisation, Nimriel leads the assault. Naomi and Elidir flee from the invaders and plan to expose Keryth's lies to the Ljósálfar army by producing Balmaris. They go to the hospital where the Doctor prevents battle from breaking out by showing the army their King. Balmaris and Elidir say that they will have peace, which their people support. Harry and Naomi are reunited and, with the Doctor having disappeared, head back to UNIT.
The Doctor shows up and offers to take Harry and Naomi to their home time in the TARDIS. Despite having made a home here, they accept the offer, with the Doctor promising to write a note for Kate at some point to explain their absence. The trio enter the TARDIS to return to the late 20th century, although the Doctor admits that there might be a few stops on the way.
Cast
- The Doctor – Sylvester McCoy
- Harry Sullivan – Christopher Naylor
- Naomi Cross - Eleanor Crooks
- Keryth – Hywel Morgan
- Agrandir – Youssef Kerkour
- Elidir / Byrne – Saffron Coomber
- Balmaris - Joshua Riley
- Sarya / Margolis - Mandy Weston
- Harper / Lathrael / Receptionist 2 - Sam Stafford
- Nimriel / May / Receptionist 1 - Candida Gubbins
Worldbuilding
- 17 Foxworth Drive was attacked.
- A man in Bromley mistakes a cat for a demon.
- Naomi says that she should call Kate Stewart.
- Naomi mentions Mr Spock.
- Naomi cannot get the hang of smart TV.
- Harry and Naomi speak to the foreman.
- Harry says that he was "top at sprinting".
- Naomi calls Keryth Robin Hood.
- Tormis is a god antagonistic to the Álfar. His sigil is the pentagram.
- The Fourth Doctor dropped Harry and Naomi off shortly after dealing with the Dominators. Many lives were lost.
- Harry and Naomi know that the Doctor left Sarah Jane Smith in Aberdeen.
- The Álfar use enchanted arrows.
- Naomi mentions William Tell.
- The Doctor mentions Orson Welles.
- The Doctor took lessons from Olga Korbut.
- Harry found the receptionist unhelpful.
- Keryth wears the Helm of Protection.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Harry mentions the Silurian plague, which was cured by the Third Doctor. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
- Harry and Naomi have been dealing with matters of life and death recently. (AUDIO: Fire and Ice, etc.)
- Naomi mentions the Robot Yeti in the London Underground. (TV: The Web of Fear)
- The Doctor is happy that at least he managed to get Sarah Jane Smith back where she wanted, unaware that he left her in Aberdeen. (TV: The Hand of Fear, School Reunion)
External links
- Official London Orbital page at bigfinish.com
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